National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, Section 246 ("Report on autonomy integration in major weapon systems")

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: NDAA provisions;U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2021-12-27

Risk subdomain coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Governance failure
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of risk domains, primarily addressing AI system security (2.2) through safety and security requirements for autonomous systems, and touching on dangerous capabilities (7.2) and lack of robustness (7.3) through testing and validation requirements. Coverage is concentrated in system safety and security domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document exclusively governs the National Security sector, specifically addressing the Department of Defense's integration of AI and autonomy software into military weapon systems. No other economic sectors are regulated or governed by this provision.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative provision enacted by the U.S. Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, with mandatory reporting requirements enforced through congressional oversight mechanisms.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 246 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which is enacted by the United States Congress as the legislative authority.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Defense; Department of Defense
• Summary: The document explicitly requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report and references Department of Defense policies that may need modification, making DoD the primary target of this governance requirement.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees
• Summary: The congressional defense committees are designated as the recipients of the mandatory report, giving them oversight and enforcement authority over compliance with this requirement.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees
• Summary: The congressional defense committees receive the report and monitor implementation through their oversight role, including review of timelines, funding requirements, and policy modifications.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document covers multiple AI lifecycle stages with primary focus on deployment and operational monitoring. It addresses planning through system selection and timeline development, development through autonomy software integration, validation through testing and verification requirements, and deployment and monitoring through operational capability requirements in GPS-denied environments.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions autonomy software and advanced artificial intelligence technologies in the context of military weapon systems. It does not specifically define or distinguish between AI models, AI systems, or specialized categories like frontier AI, general purpose AI, or foundation models. No compute thresholds or open-source considerations are mentioned.